Lifeline
by LastCornerStone
Summary: Can a parent love a child too much? When one of the PotterMalfoy children has cancer can her parents ask her sister to give up her life to save her sister? What happens when she takes her brother and they disappear? Where did they go? Time travel ON HOLD!
1. Siblings

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the Hogwarts characters. I do not own cancer because if I did everyone would kill me.

Lifeline

Siblings… a person's best friend, someone to play with and to share secrets with. That's what my parents always told me but I found that a sibling was only another word for devil. Someone who steals your toys and breaks them, someone who blames you for everything and gets away with everything else.

All my life I've lived in my sister's shadow. She was the perfect one. She was better than everyone else. But she was in trouble. She was dieing, from a muggle disease called cancer. But it wasn't just any cancer, it was Leukemia. Specifically APL. It was a blood cancer that causes undeveloped blood cells to be released into the blood steam.

My Dad and my Father said that it was because of the way we were conceived. They say that Kathrin, Dominick and I were all born differently than other kids but that it doesn't make us different.

I was never really interested in the mystery of where babies came from but more as to why they came.

While my brother and sister were asking Daddy why a hippogriff dropped babies off at houses I was busy asking Father why people had a certain number of kids. There was Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione with four kids and then there was Uncle Blaise and Aunt Pansy who had one.

Now that I'm fourteen, Kat is sixteen, and Dom is seventeen I look back and see that most kids were born on accident or as a result of to much whine. On the other hand I was made for one reason. To save my sister and that is all I ever did. This is our story.


	2. Cassandra

Disclaimer: Note…**FAN**fiction

Chapter 2: Cassandra

There I was peacefully minding my business as my boyfriend and I danced. We were waltzing around the Great Hall while students watched us, just so happy being together. I heard them whispering.

"It's about time she got a moment to herself."

"I don't think I've seen Cassy and Roy spend this much time together in a long time."

They began to join us on the floor. I was blissful and content going in for the perfect kiss, then there was a loud bang. In through the double doors my twinish sister Kathrin walked through. Her stomach was coated in blood.

Everyone ran to her. I was torn. She was my sister but this was my life. Then I saw my Dad sweep down from the long tables. "Quickly Cass! Give me your heart! It's the only thing that will save her now!"

Father was there. He was cradling Kat as Dom removed a quart of his blood to give her. They were all waiting for me to give up my heart willingly. I didn't want too. We didn't want too. "Cassandra! You can't let her die!" Father and Dad were yelling at me. Then with out warning my Dad reached up and grabbed my heart and I fell into blackness.

With a start I threw the covers of my head and woke too find myself nestled into the white down comforter on my bed. I was still in my dark purple room, in my bed with the pillows spread around me like a nest.

I sigh and wipe the sweat off my forehead. Flopping back down on the bed I looked at the luminous hands of my alarm clock. Four-thirty. I growl into my pillows. It's the fifth time I woke up to that stupid dream. And it always ended the same way. My Dad and/or my Father taking my heart and leading me into gloomy depths, I interpret as death.

Slowly I got out of the bed and crossed the room to the hall and too the bathroom Kat and I share. It was a plain white bathroom with a shower/tub. The sink was white with a mirror that opened to a medicine cabinet. The shelves were stacked high with bottles and cases of pills that Kat had to take each day.

I quickly got changed into a pair of jeans and a purple T-shirt and a zip-up sweat shirt, not bothering to look at my reflection. I new it all too well. The messy blond, almost white, hair that swept all over the place, the dead green eyes sitting atop cheeks flaked with freckles and that refugee-skinny look with no chest to speak of. It was the same thing that I saw when I looked at Kat, except Kat had a beautiful chest and had missed out on the freckles.

Most people mistook us as twin. Seeing as I was as tall as Kat and we both swam in the same end of the gene-pool, I could hardly blame them. We were both anorexicly skinny from the operations and in Kat's case the chemo and we have always stood side by side. The thing is Kat is four years older than me.

I snuck around the house passing Kat's pink room and then by my parent's green and silver room. Dom sleeps in the room over the garage so I don't have to worry about him. I walked up to the attic and found the door to the roof.

I know for a fact that none of the family knows about this other than me. It has long been a heaven for me. I crawled through and found myself looking at the rising sun as it bleeds into the sky, with reds and pinks.

They always say that when a red sun rises there has been blood spilt in the night.

"Cassandra! Get down her now!"

I guess they're right. My father only uses that tone when something's wrong with Kat. I scurry down to the kitchen and find my parents ready to go.

And from there it's a run to St. Mungo's. Kate was in the white Clean Room, and we all had to get magically sanitized before going near her. Father and Dad drop to her side as Dom and I are shoved to the side to make way for the nurses. They say its Kat's kidneys. It needs to be replaced and I know who will be losing half her life.

I watch as they swarm my unconscious sister, like flies on a festering carcass. Soon the little room is too crowded and Dom and I are pushed out. I can see Dad's famous messy black hair and Father's pale face through the window, Father hugging Dad to his side. Don watches sadly, ruffling his messy black hair. Our green eyes and his black hair were inherited from father just like Kat's and my white-blonde hair and Kat's silver eyes are inherited from Father.

He and I sit on the benches outside the room watching and waiting. As soon as they get her stable, the room begins to clear. I see Kat's faint blonde head poking above the sheets, looking more skeletal then ever before. Dom and I take the first turn in the Tea Room. Father and Dad want time to see her alone.

I pull the physiology book from my backpack and lounge against my chair with Green Tea in my hand. The stuff they serve here is too strong so I bring my own. Dom stares out the window, lost in a world were he could share the burden, no the honor, with me. He wants to save Kat so much; he was devastated when they said he wasn't a match.

When we switch with Dad and Father, I sat by Kat's bed doing my best to not look at her. Dom can't stop staring. The plastic tubes and odd wires that protrude from her chest crisscross with each other making her curvy chest look like a lab-rat's maze. I can hardly think that this is just routine. I can still see all those times I was hooked up to all those machines as well.

I look back at my book. The chapter was on questions people can't really answer truthfully. This one was _Would You Die For Me? _I laugh at the irony. Here I was, sitting in a hospital room, my brother lost in some perfect world were we all live happily ever after like some fairytale from one of Kat's old children's books. And next to me, my sister lies comatose just waiting for me to give up my life willingly so she can squander it. I can't help but think that our lives would be simpler if we didn't spend ¾ of it in a hospital. Kat is a sick, dying, child and I know she can't help it but she's killing the rest of us right along with her.


	3. Dominick

Disclaimer: I do not own any HP characters or scenery…because if I did I wouldn't be writing on fanfiction under a pen name. You'd all know my name...HEHEHE...POWER!

A BIG THANKS TO ALL MY REVIEWERS!

Chapter 3: Dominick

Some how the world seems to turn on me. No matter what I do for it, it's never enough. No. Mother Nature, The Fates, the Almighty Lord, pick any of them, one or all of them hate me. I have come to this conclusion after having to endure a week, in the one place I have never needed to be in.

Saint Mungo's was an amazing hospital, I'll admit that much. But when you are one step away from the most powerful wizard on the face of the earth… well it's kinda hard not to notice the special treatment.

I spend most of my time here and have gotten pretty familiar with most of the healers. There's this one though, she offered to come to Hogwarts for my sister, and not because our Dad is the famous Harry Potter. It's because her brother's there.

She got to be, maybe, twenty and has dark black hair that lands in a slight pool around her shoulders. Her name's Cassandra Witashier. She's about five' six with hazel eyes and the softest voice anyone has ever heard. She says she has a boy friend but sometimes I wonder if it's only to stop the hobos that walk in here to ask her on a date.

Much like Aunt Hermione, she walks around with little interest in her appearance. But I wonder if there's something going on in her life, because as she walks in with the cart of meds her patients are on, my eye is caught by the bags under her eyes and the faint gray-silver that is creeping into her hair.

I have always wondered about the life of Cassandra Witashier, and before I knew what was happening, I was completely rapped around it.

Kat sat with Cassy doing the crossword. I sat off to one side, hoping not to be noticed when she first came in. Draco walked behind her, Harry behind him. Cassy stiffened and turned back to looking out the window. "Hey honey." Draco leaned over and kissed Kat. She hummed her hello not taking her eyes off the cross word. "Hello Cass" Harry leaned over to kiss Cassandra. She smiled up and greeted him warmly.

I shrugged and gave my dad a hug. He sat down next to me. Suddenly Kat spoke up. "What's a nine letter word for lifeline?" I watched Dad and Father think for a moment. "Savior?" "That's six, Dad."

"Liberator?"

"No it needs two's's. Can't be a liberator."

Cassandra sat with her small arms rapped around her waist listening to the same stupid banter I was. I could see something was bothering her. I saw it in the way she looked at Dad and Father. Her eyes sparkled with some tears that would never be shed. I saw the long in her eyes as she turned to face the window. Outside there was a happy group of youngsters playing a small game of Quidditch.

"I don't want to do the transplant."

The effect of the simple sentence was more effective then shooting the Dark Mark into the sky at a wizarding convention. The only sound in the room was the slight beeping in the background as Kat, Dad, and Father all looked at Cassy who was still staring out of the window. Then the world came crashing back down on it's self. "WHAT!" Cassandra didn't budge.

"AFTER EVERTHING WE HAVE DONE!" Harry fumed. Draco didn't respond. He simply fumed. Cassandra still hadn't turned. Harry was still yelling at her. I sat watching her. I never knew how much she felt about this whole thing. I would have given anything to have been a donor for Kat, however since I was made to follow Dad and the Cassandra was made to follow Kat who followed father.

But there sitting in the window of that white room was the mirror image of Harry. If only his parent could see her for whom she is not what she kept alive. He tuned back in to the conversation.

"WILL YOU LOOK AT ME? YOU CAN'T SAY SOMETHING LIKE THAT AND NOT LOOK US IN THE FACE!" The surrounding lights began to flicker and the contents of a few shelves were rattling. Draco clutched his husband's shoulders. Harry took a deep breath and faced his child.

Cassandra turned slowly and gave his parents one look. The bottles and cabinet exploded. Harry and Draco jumped slightly. I knew that was coming. She was a lot more powerful than our parents ever new. She didn't full apply herself to school and spent all her time playing Quidditch. She didn't apply herself because she knew that she'd be taken away too much to actually pass her classes. She hopped to become a professional player. She had never told anyone that. Not even her boy friend.

She stood up and looked her father in the eye as before looking at her dad. "I'm tired of being you ingredients cupboard. How long is it going to talk you to see that I'm a living breathing human being! I have a life and am not going to sit on this dissection try any longer." She stood up and grabbed my hand. "Cassandra."

"What?"

"A nine letter word for lifeline, Cassandra. Let's see how you deal without her."

She disappeared with me following a little behind.

"Actually, it's assistant." Kat read from the back. She filler in the puzzle as thou nothing had happened.

I followed Cassandra's trail, sickened by my 'family'.


	4. Cassy

Disclaimer: Would I be writing on Fanfiction if I owned Harry Potter?

Chapter 4: Cassandra

I stormed out of the Hospital wing my sister was in, flew down the hall and tried to get a handle on my magic. I scooped up my backpack from the locker in the Tea Room and exited to the main lobby.

"Cass! Cass, wait up! CASS!"

Shaking my head I adjusted my grip on the backpack and picked up the pace. I heard the patter of his trainers hitting the tile floor. "Morning Miss. Potter-Malfoy" A Healer greeted me. I nodded back respectfully, not knowing the Healer's name. Too many of them knew my and I didn't have the capacity to remember the whole Oncology wing's staff list.

Finally Dom caught up to me. "Dom, I don't want to hear it. If they don't even have the decency to follow me when I suggest I'm leaving, then I don't want anything to do with them. Have they ever once come to our games? Have they ever once said hello to us first? Have they ever even come home over the summer yearly because you were feeling under-the-weather?"

His green eyes matched mine, and for once I knew there was life in my eyes. I had dead eyes. My soul was too used up to bring any sparkle to the famous Potter emerald eyes. "Cass, I'm not here to stop you…Well I am, but not for them… For me, I need you for me. I can't lose another sister." His eyes filled with invisible tears.

I had to turn away. Then I turned back. Dom was great to me. He was always there after operations, offering me a teddy bear of some water while Dad and Father cooed over Kat, who was worse off, or at lest I always told myself that.

"Come with me Dom."

He did a double take. "What?!? Cass, you're really doing this aren't you?" I nodded. "Cass, please… don't make me choose. Our family's already so split up." I looked at him, with the puppy dog eyes Uncle Sirius had taught me so long ago. "Not fair." He said pointing his finger at me and turning away like it would stop the eyes.

I loved Uncle Sirius and Remus. I idolized Sirius. Before Harry left, never to contact them again, he promised me his motorbike, the one that flew. He was the one that taught me to become an unregistered animagius.

"We can go live with Uncle Sirius and Uncle Remus." She said excitedly. "Come on Dom. You can finish your animagius training. We'll finally be ably to have an entire year at Hogwarts. We'll have someone watch our games; Hell will get better brooms than the Nimbus Two Thousand. They've got fuck'n Thunderbolts out, that's my broom Dom! You know that I can afford it! Hell, my income alone would by three! My Thunderbird is calling for it! Can't I treat myself for once?" Dom looked at her like she was being selfish.

"When has Kat ever thanked me? You? When has she done anything that wasn't for herself? Kat is selfish and is using her disease as a crutch. I can't live under her anymore. I'M NOT A BLOODY CUBBORED OF REMOVABLE PARTS! IF SHE WAN'T POTION STORES SHE SHOULD TALK TO UNCLE SEV!" The doors and windows rattled dangerously. Dom tried to calm his youngest sister. "SHE, NO THEY ALL NEED TO KNOW THAT WHEN THEY USE UP ALL OF ME, THERE'S NOT GOING TO BE ANY LEFT!"

"Cass, please. We'll go. I know how you feel. We'll go." Dom took her by the shoulders and the pair walked out the door, Harry and Draco watching them go.

I threw together some all my clothes and necessitates. We gathered up enough floo powder to get us to Diagon Alley and them to Sirius's house. We took the trunks into the fireplace down stairs and flooed to Diagon Ally.

We stepped out into the Leakey Cauldron and were greeted by the usual hails. We just waved back and dropped of our trunks with Tom's son Bob before walked through the brick wall and into Diagon Ally. We made are way past all the venders and well wishers, asking us to pass on massages to our fathers and sister, never just a 'Hey, how are you guys doing?' No always 'Shouldn't you be at St. Mungo's, you should be proud to be saving you're sister's life. Say thanks to your Dad for stopping those Death Eaters last week.'

I walked forward with more purpose and made my way into Gringotts. Dom followed close behind. We got a cart and headed down to the family vaults. We each took a bag of Gallons from each vault and glared at the piles of gold, there wasn't even a dent in it. As a last minute thought, I filled up two more bags. I climbed back into the cart and handed one to Dom. "Let's go."

Back above ground we headed down the street picking up the essential ingredients for our life abroad. It was when we were passing Quality Quidditch Supplies that I veered off. Dom followed after backing up a step.

I bought myself some Seeker's gloves and Dom got a pair of Better's gloves. Then we approached the owner. "Two Thunderbolts, please." I said as sweetly as I could manage. I've never been the girly type. "Honey that's not a toy." The owners replied sweetly. Dom smacked his forehead with his hand before raking it down his face. "Hey old timer, you don't want my money I'm fine with taking it elsewhere!" She dropped the gold on the counter.

She rushed to the back and pulled out two Thunderbolts. I swear the clerk herd my Thunderbird animagius purr as I clutched that baby. It was perfect. Dom smiled just as happily as he watched me stroke its long black shaft, running my fingers over it's yellow letters and black twigs.

So I'm a bit obsessive. I want to go pro.

We walked out, me satisfied beyond belief, Dom…probably equally as happy but better at restraining himself. We returned to the Leaky Cauldron and were about to leave when we ran into the other Cassandra. The nurse from St. Mungo's.

"Good, Cassandra, Dominick, just the pair I wanted to see."

"If Father or Dad sent you, you can tell them they should have cared when I did."

"No, I come on my own accord, well really my company's accord."

Now she had my attention. If some company was interested in me and Dom, it was a Hell of a lot better than what I was in before hand.

"Let's have lunch, we'll talk."

"K"

Dom gave ma look but followed me to the table.


	5. Dom

Disclaimer: HARRY POTTER IS NOT MINE! Trust me, you'd notice the difference if he was.

Chapter 5: Dominick

"I represent an organization interested in time travel. Technically we fall under the Unspeakable Department in the Ministry of Magic under Minister Weasley. However, we are a new group and as such our program is only temporary."

We sat in the Leakey Cauldron, Cass and I with steaming cups of tea and Miss. Witashier had a cup of coffee. We had been sitting there for about half an hour, our original mission to run away to Uncle Sirius' long since forgotten in the heat of the moment.

I sighed sipping my tea. This was like a bad science fiction movie, complete with secret government organization, destined to wander the time stream, righting wrongs and screwing up history.

"We don't want to change anything, merely find out why certain things happened. Regular meetings are held on high priority cases and the minister choices to change things. Only his word can change things."

Cassy was far too interested for my tastes. Yes it was an interesting idea, but the way I understood it, it was only a test trial.

"How many missions have you completed, successfully?" I asked. I mental berated myself for the tone. The one time a girl wants to talk to me for me and not my association to Harry Potter, and I have to take the offensive tone.

She took it in her stride. "Five. The only problem is we haven't found the right group of people to go through with the missions. Some goes as ghosts, some take their bodies and others just can't leave." She acted like it wasn't a problem. "Did they get back?" I asked disbelieving.

"Oh yes, not a hair out of place. We just need to find the right team to go through. Thing is, if you join us, you'll go on your own as the first mission is going to be kinda personal."

Cassy looked up, her dead green eyes, sparked. "What is it?" She asked in the monotone she normally saved for Father and Dad, sometime even Kat. "My bosses want to know what turned your fathers from their friends and families." I shoved my chair away from the table and walked into the stair well, anywhere but at that table. Cassy had followed me.

"Dom, aren't you the lest bit curious?" She looked at me, her eyes alive with emotion for once. "If we couldn't know them as adults, at lest we could know them as kids! It's a chance of a life time! They might not care about us right now, but maybe back then they would have! We could save them! Hell we could save us all!" I looked at her, finally catching up to her train of thought.

"You mean… stop the accident that caused Kat's cancer?" I felt my hopes rise drastically.

"Yeah, think about it Dom. From what we heard over the Extendable Ears we know that it happened because of some accident right after their second year out of school. We could stop all our torture. Maybe than Daddy and Father would love us! We could have a real life!"

I knew I was going to give in now. From the look on Cassy's face she new it too, but it wasn't for the reasons she probably thought. Yeah I was interested in saving Kat, but the way her eyes light up and the smile that danced across her lips was so beautiful. I have only seen her like this during the few moments she has alone with Roy, her boyfriend. I love Cassy, but I've been so busy trying to save Kat, as well as our parents that I haven't been there for her nearly as much as I should have.

I smiled down at her, her green eyes still glowing with excitement and I new that she wanted to save Kat as much as I did, she just didn't want to die in order to save her. "Okay, we'll give it a try." She shrieked with delight, cracking the large mirror behind the bar.

We hurried over to the table and Miss. Witashier still sat, a smile dancing across her rosy cheeks. "I take it you're interested?' she inquired pointing to the mirror. Cassy shook her head, still bouncing up and down. "Good, I'll get us a ride to Ministry." She stood up and walked out of the pub. Cassy and I picked up our bags and with bigger smiles than ether of us have seen on the other, walked after her.

The ride to the Ministry was long thanks to the floo networks check-up, as issued by the Minister. Apparently they were installing some new tracer, allowing the own of the system or the Ministry to track travels. When the large black Ministry car pulled to a stop we clambered out and followed Miss. Witashier into the phone booth. She punched in the code and got the badges before we descended into the depths of the ministry.

The lobby hadn't changed much since they had been their last visiting Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione and their kids. The Fountain of Magical Brethren still stood tall with its centaur, wizard, elf, werewolf, vampire and demon sprouting water from different points.

I watch Cassy, she looks so happy, but suddenly her face fell. "What's the matter Cass?" I asked her stopping before her. "What if we mess up and you and I are never born?" She suddenly looks fearful. "We'll correct it Cass. We'll make a better future." Miss. Witashier stopped now. "Cassandra?" I look at her. "Can we change the future if something goes wrong?"

"Oh yes. There is a chamber with in the Ministry were no time passes. If something happens on the outside that isn't good for the public of ether the muggle or wizarding world, the people on the inside can get a message to the people in the future so they can go back and stop themselves from changing that part of the future, erases the slate, letting our operatives start over." Cassy let out her breath. She still looked scared. "I think actually getting here is starting to freak me out. I mean, we're really going to do this." She whispered. I did the only thing I could. I collected her in my arms and hugged her.

She stiffened at first and I cursed my centered parents, not for the first time. "Cass, I won't let you not be born. I swear, if I have to bring in someone from our family to look in on the future I will." Miss. Witashier looked at me as if I was a genius.

"That's it! You should bring in someone close, to see if anything involving the people our Time Hoppers are watching, changes to drastically. After all we allow some wealthier clients to pay big bucks to fix something, with the Minister's approval of course." She smiled and said "I knew you were the right choice." Cassy looked more hopeful. "Got someone in mind?" I asked. "Sirius." She said firmly. I simple smiled. She would trust Sirius with the deed to her soul.

We traveled down the great gold elevator till we reached the Unspeakable floor. I took Cassy's hand in mine and together we followed Miss. Witashier through the large black door.

"We will train you in the Room without Time before we send you on your journey. You will learn all there is to know about time travel and a few things on defense and spell casting. We will help you enhance all your abilities such as wandless magic and even your animagius forms, if you have them. Sword fighting, knife fighting, dueling, muggle style fighting, riding, racing, mental defense and invasion, healing, creature control, wand making, potion making, sword making, Parsaltoung, French, Italian, Spanish, German, Golbuldy gook, Elvish, Mermish, Runes, warding, decryption, slight of hand, weaponry, armed and unarmed combat, anatomy, hell we'll help you raise familiars." Miss. Witashier ranted in a sing breath leading the way through the circled room of doors, and into a large room filled with obstacles and labs and room and instruments of many sorts.

Cassy's head was probably jerking around more than mine, and I all ready had a neck cramp. "Shit, Cass, we don't need to go back to Hogwarts any more." I whispered. "You're out of Hogwarts." She reminded me. "Oh…Right."

With that was started the first steps to changing our lives forever.


End file.
